Beyond the "Clash of Civilizations"

George Weigel

Although a bit overconfident, George Weigel correctly points out that the
"skepticism, moral relativism, and nihilism" that inevitably results from the loss of
religious faith may compel the Catholic and Orthodox to work more closely
together.

One of the most intriguing proposals for thinking about the post-Cold War world is
Harvard professor Samuel Huntington's suggestion that global politics in the twenty-first
century will be channeled along cultural, not national, fault-lines.

But John Paul II may well have laid the groundwork for a renewed East-West ecumenism
in which Catholics and Orthodox begin from a new premise--that working together to
challenge the moral relativism, skepticism, and nihilism of the global MTV culture is of
the essence of the new evangelization...perhaps the Orthodox can now begin to see that
the new Babylon is not Rome but Hollywood and the shopping mall. Re-evangelizing Europe
together in the face of that challenge, it may be suggested, will make it easier to solve
outstanding theological questions between East and West, like the primacy of the Bishop
of Rome, the "procession" of the Holy Spirit, and the nature of Christian marriage.